MARKET FOCUS Aerospace mergers and acquisitions continue apace In Europe 10 NEWS BREAKS France to decide this month whether to buy a used U.S. Navy E-2C 16 NASA struggles to accommodate a $528.1-million cut for Fiscal 2007 16 Sikorsky demonstrates S-92's ability to deploy countermeasures 17 Eurofighter begins Typhoon test flights with MBDA Meteor missile 18 Italy and Turkey want to sign deal for attack helo program by May 31 19 WORLD NEWS & ANALYSIS
Alain Bellemare has become executive vice president of Pratt & Whitney Strategy and Development. He will continue as president of Pratt & Whitney Canada, Longueuil, Quebec. John Saabas, who has been executive vice president of PWC, also will be chief operating officer.
Merger and acquisition activity, both at the national and transatlantic level, continues apace in Europe. Even if there is now only limited potential for more consolidation among large system integrators, companies in other parts of the defense market continue to see opportunities for transactions. This is especially true for first-tier suppliers, such as GKN plc.
About 10% of simulated North Korean missiles hit Japan in an exercise held this year, according to Japanese newspaper reports. The Japanese-U.S. Keen Edge command exercise in late January and early February simulated the launch of about 150 enemy missiles over several days, says the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper. The paper didn't note what defensive weapons were used in the simulation. The Lockheed Martin PAC-3 system was deployed in Japan for the first time Mar. 30.
Alan Stern, NASA's new associate administrator for science, hits the ground running with a pitch to his battered staff urging support of human space exploration, and a promotion to NASA-Goddard's Nobel laureate, John Mather. Astrophysicist Mather is the new chief scientist at agency headquarters, heading a staff of expert advisers to Stern, who also remains principal investigator on the New Horizons mission to Pluto.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has demonstrated the S-92 helicopter's ability to deploy chaff-and-flare countermeasures to deflect missiles away from the aircraft. A series of flights was completed recently at the U.S. Naval Weapons Test Center at China Lake, Calif., using a version of the ALE-47 system installed on various aircraft, including the Sikorsky UH-60, MH-60, HH-60 and S-70. According to Sikorsky, the system is being offered to international military customers of the H-92 Superhawk as well as countries using the helicopter for head-of-state and VIP missions.
Lockheed Martin has completed the critical design review phase of the U.S. Navy's Mobile User Objective System (MUOS). The recent four-day system Critical Design Review (CDR) took place at the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., facility. The review--a culmination of a 30-month design phase--validated the design of the overall MUOS system. The first MUOS satellite (see illustration) is slated for on-orbit hand-over to the Navy in 2010 along with the entire ground system.
Air Force Research Laboratory engineers at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, have set up a five-year schedule for designing an adaptive engine that will let pilots easily shift from high-speed combat maneuvering to fuel-efficient, long-range persistence flight. A broad agency announcement has challenged industry to come up with a demonstrator. The Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (Advent) goals are to develop inlet, engine and exhaust technologies that optimize performance over a broad range of altitudes and speeds.
Italy and Turkey are trying to clear a path to sign the agreement for the €1.2-billion ($1.6-billion) Atak 2 attack helicopter program before the end of May, following the selection of the AgustaWestland A129 Mangusta.
Crews at Kennedy Space Center will pull all three engines on the space shuttle Atlantis to ensure a putty-like silicone used to gauge changes in fuel-pipe liners hasn't contaminated the propulsion system. Post-flight inspections of engines flying in the No. 3 position on the shuttle Discovery found traces of the "RepliSet" material in the preburners. It apparently had been left behind, upstream of the engine, when crews used the material to make before-and-after molds to see if there were changes in the fuel flow liners during flight.
FlightSafety International has launched its pilot training program for the Cessna Citation Mustang lightweight jet, following FAA and EASA qualification of a full-flight simulator at its Wichita (Kan.) Learning Center. In the fourth quarter, FlightSafety plans to inaugurate European pilot training for the Mustang.
More satellite data reveal dwindling sea ice coverage surrounding the North Pole, suggesting that an Arctic warming trend traced back at least to 1958 is continuing at a faster pace. With data from NASA's QuikScat, which uses radar to discriminate between seasonal ice and older perennial ice, and other sources, scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory find wintertime replenishment of ice that melts over the summer continues to decline.
If AirTran Airways acquires Midwest Airlines, the merger will meld a fast-growing, well-managed carrier in AirTran with a unique product of the post-deregulation era. The combination would produce an airline with more than 2% of the U.S. market share, building on AirTran's solid Northeast and Southern U.S. bases and on Milwaukee-sited Midwest's strong coverage of the mid-section, and comparatively new strengths to the west. Each airline is a Boeing customer.
Mark V. Rosenker, Chairman (National Transportation Safety Board, Washington, D.C.)
The coverage on "UAVs in Civil Airspace" (AW&ST Feb. 12, pp. 46-51) was an excellent introduction to the many systemic issues confronting this aviation sector.
A joint federal task force charged with transforming the U.S. ATC system so it can handle three times more air traffic by 2025 has been mainly talking and publishing plans. But now the group's director wants to create a team geared to tackling technical challenges and implementing solutions.
The French government is expected to decide this month whether to buy a used U.S. Navy E-2C Hawkeye to fill its long-standing requirement for a fourth carrier-based airborne early warning aircraft. France has wanted a fourth E-2 to provide adequate capacity to maintain 24-hr. surveillance around its aircraft carrier and still meet training and depot maintenance needs. But funding has always been an issue, and prior talks between Paris and E-2 prime contractor Northrop Grumman failed to produce a sale.
Clark Freise (see photo) has been named vice president/general manager of BAE Systems' Defense Avionics business, Johnson City, N.Y. He was deputy general manager of Information Dominance Systems for BAE Systems and site executive at Hudson, N.H.
Assuring a successful ramp-up of regional jet production this year is Embraer's priority, but it is not ignoring the potential for new projects, including a C-130-sized jet transport aircraft. The military transport would be a high-wing derivative of the Embraer 190 regional jet, with an aft ramp. Although little more than a study, Mauricio Botelho, Embraer chairman and CEO, says, "There is value in the idea."
The U.K. plans to add a sensor suite to an unmanned combat air vehicle testbed following the successful conclusion of the first phase of the program. During the tests, a fast jet controlled a number of simulated UCAV flights as part of the Defense Ministry's 30-month Surrogate project.
The European Space Agency (ESA) has signed agreements with NASA and Russia's Institute for Biomedical Problems (IBMP) for joint operational work and studies, respectively, that can lead to greater cooperation in future human space-exploration endeavors. The European agency has signed on with IBMP as a "full partner" on the Mars 500 project, a long-term study primarily funded by the Russian space agency Roscosmos that will lock a crew of six volunteers in a Mars ship mockup for a simulated trip that could take as long as 700 days.
Regarding the letter from AVIATION WEEK President Tom Henricks (AW&ST Mar. 19/26, p. 7), I fear the U.S. manned space program is going nowhere. No human has walked on the Moon since 1972. What has happened to NASA's technological mastery of human spaceflight? The space shuttle is flawed, and the International Space Station was a mistake. If President Bush were a true space enthusiast, he would follow through on his commitment to space exploration with priority funding. Space exploration is an investment and will move humanity past war and aggression on Earth.
Michael Thompson (see photo) has become vice president-market development for SkyWest Airlines. He succeeds Steven Hart, who is retiring. Thompson was the executive operational analyst. Michael J. Kraupp has become vice president-finance/treasurer of SkyWest Inc. He was assistant treasurer.
The German aerospace research agency DLR is unveiling technology concepts for futuristic air and space transport systems, ranging from fuel-cell-powered aircraft to reusable launch vehicles.
Airbus booked 37 orders last month, mostly in the narrow-aisle segment. Finnair's order for seven A340-300s and two A350-900s represented the only widebody sales. In its first quarter report, Airbus shows it remains the delivery champ, especially among narrowbodies. It pushed a total of 115 aircraft out the door, including 91 narrowbodies: 46 A320s, 31 A319s, 11 A321s and three A318s. Also delivered were 11 A330-200s, six A330-300s, five A340-600s and two A300-600Rs.
ATR delivered six turboprop aircraft in the first quarter. Pakistan Interna-tional Airlines took an ATR 42-500, while Finncomm Airlines, CCM and Kingfisher Airlines received ATR 72-500s. A total of 44 ATRs are to be delivered this year.
